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Nigel Heggarty Race Report - May 25th Vassar, MI

June 4, 2008

Provided by: Nigel Heggarty

Saturday morning and we where back on the road. We showed up to the track at about 11. I went out for practice and struggled a bit. I made a couple gearing changes and the bike was perfect. I did fairly well in my heat races. I qualified in the front row for both mains. In the 450 amateur race I got a bad start but recovered and went on to get by my brother to take 2nd. In the combo class I again got a bad start but played catch up for the remainder of the race. I passed several riders till I caught up to Colin. I carried as much speed as I could through turns three and four and got the thing straightened up as soon as possible. I got good drive and pulled him down the front straight to the checkered flag. He ended up beating me by about 6 inches. I settled for 4th place.

Sunday I was ready to rock and roll. Practice went well. The bike was set up perfectly. In my 450 amateur heat I finally got a good start and was right behind the leader the whole race. I could not get by for the win. In the combo class again I got a good start and was second for the first few laps but was passed going down the back straight by a 525. I managed to keep the leaders in sight but never could catch them. It was time for the mains and I was ready. I got a good start going side by side into turn one. I stayed with the leader for half the race then I started to get sloppy. I think the long nights driving and sleeping in the van caught up to me. I tried to hold on to second as Colin came up on me. He got me coming into three but I got on the gas and was not going down without a fight. I hit him coming onto four pushing him up into the deep cushion. I held onto it for a couple more laps until the last corner where he got great drive and beat me to the line by about a bike length.

The Combo class was next. I got a great start and was first coming into turn 1 but as soon as we got to the back straight Steven Vanderkuur's super Honda sailed by. Not long after was the 525. I was in 3rd for the rest of the race running side by side for almost the whole race with Colin. We ended up 3rd and 4th by inches in this race. All in all it was a great weekend. We managed to make almost all our expense money back so that was a bonus. Colin and I battled so hard all weekend. The biggest gap between the two of us all weekend was never more than three bike lengths. We had a great time literally banging bars and roosting each other. Both of us had big grins every time we came off the track. All weekend we had people coming up to us checking out the bikes and taking pictures and saying "That was awesome!!! I thought you where gonna take each other out!" We had a ton of fun and really enjoyed racing and hanging out with the folks in Michigan.